Your Freedom and Mine: Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish Question in Turkey

The Peace in Kurdistan Campaign, Kurdistan National Congress UK, Kurdish People’s Assembly in Britain, and Freedom for Öcalan Campaign UK invite you to a discussion event to mark the release of Your Freedom and Mine: Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish Question in Erdogan’s Turkey (edited by Thomas Jeffrey Miley and Federico Venturini).

The volume offers crucial insight into the dramatic history, reality, and prospects of the Kurdish question in Turkey by combining historical survey, human rights reports, interviews, personal accounts, geopolitical analysis, and political philosophy. It is the remarkable work of 25 contributors, including politicians, academics, journalists, Iceland’s former minister of justice, veteran war correspondent Jonathan Steele, and key leaders inside the movement.

Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley (Lecturer in Political Sociology, Cambridge),

Rohash Xelil (Kongra Star, UK representative),

Simon Dubbins (UNITE the Union, International Director),

and Dr Felix Padel (Research Fellow, Anthropology, Oxford)

Chair: Mohammed Elnaiem (editor at The Region)

The event will be held in Lecture Room 6, New College, University of Oxford, at 6pm.

The room is on the ground floor and fully accessible.

Solidarity donations are encouraged.

Biographies:

Thomas Jeffrey Miley (PhD, Yale) is Lecturer of Political Sociology and Fellow of Darwin College at the University of Cambridge. He has published widely on the dynamics of nationalist conflict and accommodation in Spain and, increasingly, in Turkey. His current research project is on comparative struggles for self-determination in the twenty-first century. He has participated in several delegations to Turkey and different parts of Kurdistan, including to Rojava, and is a member of the executive board of the EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC).

Rohash Xelil is the UK representative of Kongra Star (Star Congress, founded 2005 as Yekîtiya Star), the confederation of women’s organisations in Rojava, and a member of the management committee of the London-based Roj Women Association (RWA). After studying journalism and media in Syria she worked as a journalist in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

Simon Dubbins is the International Director UNITE, co-ordinating the European and global work of the trade union across all its sectors. He has worked for the Graphical, Paper and Media union, and served as the International Head of AMICUS. Co-Convenor of the Freedom for Ocalan Campaign in UK.

Felix Padel (DPhil, Oxon) is a Research Fellow at the School of Anthropology, University of Oxford. He recently returned to the UK after thirty years in India where he taught anthropology and was an activist for tribal and village community rights. He is the author of Sacrificing People: Invasions of a Tribal Landscape (1995/2010), Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel (with Samarendra Das, 2010), and Ecology, Economy: Quest for a Socially Informed Connection (with Ajay Dandekar and Jeemol Unni, 2013). He shares his passion for nature and justice with his great-great grandfather, Charles Darwin.

Mohammed Elnaiem (MPhil, Cantab) is the editor for the Gulf at The Region and an activist in the Black liberation movement. He can be followed on Twitter at @m_elnaiem.The event will be held in Lecture Room 6, New College, University of Oxford, at 6pm.

EMERGENCY APPEAL FOR AFRIN

Life in Afrin

Weekly News Briefing

Jeremy Corbyn issues statement of support for the National Demo

Message from Jeremy Corbyn to Kurdish national demonstration in London:
“I’m sorry not to be able to be with you today, but I send a message of solidarity with today’s demonstration, and with the Kurdish people, under sustained attack across the Middle East.
The conflict in Syria has been the trigger for an onslaught against the Kurdish people, who are defending their autonomy and their rights.
We are watching closely the alarming events that have been unfolding in Turkey in recent weeks, including the killing of civilians and destruction of Kurdish homes.
Any negotiated settlement of the Syrian conflict must include peace and justice for the Kurds, including in Turkey. And the Turkish government needs as a matter of urgency to restart the peace process with the Kurds and respect the rights of all its people.
We call for an end to repression of the Kurds and justice for the Kurdish people throughout the Middle East.”

Destruction and Repression in North Kurdistan

Freedom for Ocalan!

On the 19th anniversary of his kidnap and imprisonment by Turkey, we renew our call for Abdullah Ocalan to be freed as part of a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.